[Banestorm] How little can a resident of Yrth know about the setting?

[Michael Thayne]

I'm thinking of running a Banestorm where much of the focus is on simply exploring the setting. A lot of that would include discovering the deep, dark secrets of Yrth, but I'm wondering how far I can push this. How ignorant could the PCs theoretically be at the beginning?

Canonically, "the secret is out on Yrth," but I'm not sure how many people would truly understand the whole "parallel worlds" thing very well. 800 years since the main banestorm is a lot of time for the whole thing to get shrouded in myth and legend. Oh sure, historians will have a clear idea of the truth, but there's no reason for Megalan peasants to understand it very well. The question is how badly distorted a view of things could a Megalan peasant have? Could a Megalan peasant be totally ignorant of the whole thing, and believe it's completely possible to reach Israel by sailing a ship in the right direction? Could a Christian Megalan peasant not even know about Israel, and think Jesus lived somewhere in Megalos?

If you want to really make the players totally ignorant at the beginning, you could (with perhaps a "this world is not what it appears to be" warning so they don't get mad at you later) given them so little information that they're likely to assume this is a generic fantasy setting. However, real-world religions put a wrench in that. Christianity and Islam aren't a part of generic fantasy settings, and since people in countries with those religions will know about them, start characters off in one of those countries and they'll know something is up. But maybe players starting out as Northmen or Sahudese could be allowed to assume they're in a generic fantasy setting?

Now, I don't actually have much desire to push things as far as suggested in the previous paragraph, but it's interesting to think about what's theoretically possible, given the constraints of the setting. What other things are subjects where typical residents of Yrth might be surprisingly ignorant?

[ericthered]

I've met people IRL who thought that "America" meant "New York", had 52 states, and that Australia was by Europe. Oh, and this was prevalent through about half a million people. You can have high levels of ignorance.

Even more than not understanding the whole "parallel worlds thing" is simply not grasping it. humans have a hard time imagining cultures they haven't seen. Its one thing to know that other worlds exist. Its another to understand the cultures there.

[gilbertocarlos]

There are people who don't know that america is a continent, who think that europe is a country, who think brazilians live in forest cities with carnival all year long, and there is people who live in rural areas who think the world is limited to farms around and the town nearby.


So, someone who lives in Yrth may not know even that Megalos is a country, or about the existence of muslims. Actually, that should be pretty common, most of the knowledge about islam that medieval people had was that they were devil whorshippers who lived far away.

[tantric]

I always had problems accepting the idea that residents of Yrth would have any idea they weren't on Earth. Perhaps the intellectuals, but maybe not even the clergy, since it would seem to fly in the face of Biblical literalism. At the least, they would explain it in terms of God rather than pagan magic.

Note: I haven't read the new setting closely, and I don't play Banestorm, so I might be talking out of my rear here.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by gilbertocarlos

There are people who don't know that america is a continent, who think that europe is a country, who think brazilians live in forest cities with carnival all year long, and there is people who live in rural areas who think the world is limited to farms around and the town nearby.

So, someone who lives in Yrth may not know even that Megalos is a country, or about the existence of muslims. Actually, that should be pretty common, most of the knowledge about islam that medieval people had was that they were devil whorshippers who lived far away.

Both of the past two American presidents have made notable slips in public speeches, for example.

Bill Stoddard

[Ego Archive]

800 years is a lot of generations, it's unlikely to even be part of your average persons history. Anything beyond a couple days travel is just so much rumor and fantasy, as to be highly suspect. Even those who have spent years traveling around Megalos, still only have a small glimpse of the Makeup of Yrth.

Heck, even historians will have a distorted view; with so many disparate viewpoints, wealthy (or powerful) figures rewriting things favorably, and records lost, word of mouth translated, and on. What you are likely to come up with is something your average historian calls the truth, but is pretty far off the mark of what happened. Now imagine that being the case in each region, and your probably getting close to what a mess it would look like to even the most learned.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

. However, real-world religions put a wrench in that. Christianity and Islam aren't a part of generic fantasy settings, and since people in countries with those religions will know about them, start characters off in one of those countries and they'll know something is up.

Maybe it's because I don't believe in "generic fantasy settings" but I don't really see the problem here. Tell them it's historical fantasy, but they really don't know about anything beyond a day's walk from the village. Or just tell them this fantasy world's religions are Christianity, Islam and so on.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

However, real-world religions put a wrench in that. Christianity and Islam aren't a part of generic fantasy settings, and since people in countries with those religions will know about them, start characters off in one of those countries and they'll know something is up.

I would see this as a bonus. The players then want to figure out what on earth is going on.

[sir_pudding]

Besides if they are familiar with Yrth, they'll twig to that as soon as they know the name of the country they are in. I don't see how you can conceal that for very long.

For that matter, they should know as soon as they put a language on the character sheet.

[Darieltis]

Look up "Rick Mercer - Talking to Americans"

It's astonishing what they don't even know about Canada...